Hello folks! I'm new on this drone world so I have a few questions that came up during my first week with my brand new mavic mini. I flew my drone a few times from my balcony at 12 floor and indor due to this quarantine 2020


1. I had to calibrate my drone several times


2. I lost calibration in flight once from my balcony making a straight line to my neighborhood square and I wasn't able to return home manually. My drone couldn't move forward to my apartment balcony at one specific point, it simply got stuck but i was able to move right, left and even move forward before that point.


I had to land on one private parking next to my building and then go to get it back




Does anyone know an explanation for that? I've been enjoying my time with this drone but another event like this would not be funny




It is important to mention that I was in a good battery level up to 60% (drone and RC) when this issue occurred and couldn't use auto RTH because was wrong configured

...seems like lotsa interference in your area....

Taking off with 60% battery is not good, it might not be anything to do with your problem but take off with freshly charged battery only 100%.

Flying from balcony is just not good for many reasons.

If you want to know what happened you need to post flight log for this particular flight, link below.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

piggybacking on this - is it normal for the Mini to request a compass calibration each time it's turned on?  (i.e. holding the drone in your hand, rotating 360* horizontally, 360* vertically).  i have a brand new Mini and the DJI Fly app has asked me to do this every time i turn it on.

wee.minidrone Posted at 4-3 08:39
piggybacking on this - is it normal for the Mini to request a compass calibration each time it's turned on?  (i.e. holding the drone in your hand, rotating 360* horizontally, 360* vertically).  i have a brand new Mini and the DJI Fly app has asked me to do this every time i turn it on.

I've experienced something similar. Can't remember well if i had to calibrate every single time i turned on my aircraft but a bunch of times sure i had

I don't understand which physical law flying for a few minutes with 60% battery is a problem.
I believe that even the most stupid of drones, apart from excessive wind, must respond to commands without excuses.
If I command on sight, fewer automatisms are available, the better.

Renato61 Posted at 4-3 09:31
I don't understand which physical law flying for a few minutes with 60% battery is a problem.
I believe that even the most stupid of drones, apart from excessive wind, must respond to commands without excuses.
If I command on sight, fewer automatisms are available, the better.

"I don't understand which physical law flying for a few minutes with 60% battery is a problem."

Not a matter of drone failing to take commands as a result of partially charged battery.  Matter of battery not really being at 60% according to drone.  


There have been cases where drone reports battery is at XX% charge at startup, but after a flight of few minutes, battery is rapidly depeleted to Y%.  Chalk it up to drone on startup is estimating battery life.  Which is why pilots and DJI recommend starting a flight with a fully charged battery.

Need more information as to which calibrations and for what reason.

Renato61 Posted at 4-3 09:31
I don't understand which physical law flying for a few minutes with 60% battery is a problem.
I believe that even the most stupid of drones, apart from excessive wind, must respond to commands without excuses.
If I command on sight, fewer automatisms are available, the better.

I have batteries here in hibernation showing at 60%, but I know if I put those in my M2 that in real terms they are probably no more than 10/15% .
This was not cause of OP’s problem which I noted, but it’s sound advice and should be heeded.

I mentioned  my battery level at 60% but when I started to face the problem after a few minutes of flying. When I started to fly my battery was on 89-9x%.

Thanks for the advice but it has nothing to do with my problem

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 4-3 09:51
Need more information as to which calibrations and for what reason.

which information need? brand new drone, compass calibrated before fly and IMU calibration ok according to app

mtavano Posted at 4-3 11:24
which information need? brand new drone, compass calibrated before fly and IMU calibration ok according to app

You’re not going to find out anything if you don’t put up log.

If you thought battery had nothing to do with problem why mention it ?

wee.minidrone Posted at 4-3 08:39
piggybacking on this - is it normal for the Mini to request a compass calibration each time it's turned on?  (i.e. holding the drone in your hand, rotating 360* horizontally, 360* vertically).  i have a brand new Mini and the DJI Fly app has asked me to do this every time i turn it on.

is it normal for the Mini to request a compass calibration each time it's turned on?
It's normal if you are doing it close to a lot of steel, such on a balcony made of reinforced concrete.
Try launching from somewhere well away from the steel that's causing your issue.

1. I had to calibrate my drone several times
That's your compass warning you that the balcony is not a suitable or safe launch spot.
Get well away from the steel inside your balcony and fly from somewhere else.

Hi mtavano, it is not recommended to take off from the balcony, tall buildings and large metal structures may affect the accuracy of the oboard compass and GPS system, please try in open areas to see if there is any problem when everything gets better.

as advised by Admin , it should be the last thing to take off from elevated structures specially concrete structures which are contain reinforcement and it will confuse the compass and confused compass means your drone may not distinguish which direction is North. You were actually lucky to safely land it , next time pls keep in mind.

Absolutely agreed. Launching from a balcony is asking for trouble.

You could and can theoretically launch safely from a balcony... but... you must know how to do it: IMU perfectly calibrated, Compass perfectly calibrated, perfect VPS view and know exactly where to power up your drone clear of any geomagnetic field distortion. And depending whether or not the GPS can be acquired clear the area quickly as initial GPS lock can be subject of quite some margin.

It can be done but my advice is DON'T DO THAT.

i see many posts saying don't launch from balcony because it will affect the GPS. But if you are flying it by visual sight (and not using the return to home), will that make a difference?  i live in a water facing apartment with a balcony and i'd really want to launch to take a short video from the balcony, but not if it is likely to crash in the water below.

wee.minidrone Posted at 4-4 19:08
i see many posts saying don't launch from balcony because it will affect the GPS. But if you are flying it by visual sight (and not using the return to home), will that make a difference?  i live in a water facing apartment with a balcony and i'd really want to launch to take a short video from the balcony, but not if it is likely to crash in the water below.

The experts here will answer that in good detail. I think it should work as you mentioned but I would hover for a while once in the clear to acquire a good number of sats before venturing on. And don't do that at night as I learned. It's too dark for the down sensors to be of much help and with no sats acquired well... bad things happen quickly without any position data.

And another point, dont launch above about 30 feet height from a balcony until you have adequate sat coverage because the down sensors don't work well higher than that.

In short, you need at least one of the two: sensor data that helps the drone stay in place or good GPS data. With neither, it doesn't work.

Experts: hope I got that right?

wee.minidrone Posted at 4-4 19:08
i see many posts saying don't launch from balcony because it will affect the GPS. But if you are flying it by visual sight (and not using the return to home), will that make a difference?  i live in a water facing apartment with a balcony and i'd really want to launch to take a short video from the balcony, but not if it is likely to crash in the water below.

Just better hope you don’t lose signal Rth might have a job getting back in the window.

Some problems with balconies, lots of magnetic interference, have seen many drones just take off and crash within seconds because of yaw issues, seen many drones take off without enough gps and craft goes straight to atti mode pilot looses control drone flys away, seen many trying to fly from inside to outside just clip the window/door frame and splat 14 stories down, seen others trying to fly home balconies can be tight spaces and crash trying to land.
So yes you can fly off balconies but they can be treacherous and are completely unsuitable environments for flying drones from and to, but it’s your own drone and fully up to you how you crash it ;+)::::::

wee.minidrone Posted at 4-4 19:08
i see many posts saying don't launch from balcony because it will affect the GPS. But if you are flying it by visual sight (and not using the return to home), will that make a difference?  i live in a water facing apartment with a balcony and i'd really want to launch to take a short video from the balcony, but not if it is likely to crash in the water below.

Keep in mind that, before RTH, GPS is used for hovering. And launching with an inaccurate GSP signal can be problematic. Consider this scenario (which was actually reported by someone on this forum): drone gets a gps signal strong enough to consider it sufficient for staying in Position mode. You launch and fly 5m away from the building and hover there. Imagine the (inaccurate) gps position the drone was using was right on top of your building. Now that the drone is clear of the building, gps accuracy increases and moves to the drone’s correct location. To the drone, this looks like the wind pushed it 5m away from you and it will try to compensate, meaning it will fly into the building.
Another possible scenario: GPS accuracy is deemed to be insufficient and once you fly out the balcony (considering you’re higher than the 2nd floor), VPS will also become unavailable. Drone will switch to ATTI mode. Any slight breeze of wind will push it away. Are you prepared to manually keep it in place until it acquires gps lock? Do you have sufficient space not to fly into something?
I launched it once from a balcony like this but I was fully aware of what could happen so once I decided to exit the balcony i gave it full beans to get at least 30m away from the building, so I could react if it decided to fly back towards the building. It instead went to atti mode, which has another surprise in store if you’re not ready. Once you let go of the stick, the drone keeps on going, it’s not braking by itself

So, yes, you can take off from the balcony but you’d better be prepared for these multiple outcomes

wee.minidrone Posted at 4-4 19:08
i see many posts saying don't launch from balcony because it will affect the GPS. But if you are flying it by visual sight (and not using the return to home), will that make a difference?  i live in a water facing apartment with a balcony and i'd really want to launch to take a short video from the balcony, but not if it is likely to crash in the water below.

i see many posts saying don't launch from balcony because it will affect the GPS.
The serious problem you face is not GPS related.
Launching from a reinforced concrete structure or close to steelwork is asking for trouble.
You are likely to set yourself up for a yaw error which would set your drone racing away and uncontrollable.
The other things people have mentioned might not happen or are minor issues, but a yaw error is a serious issue.